[satisfice]

If you are right, then wow, I must be even smarter than I think I am— considering all the suppression that must have happened from being told I am smart.

But I think it’s more likely that considering myself capable of solving problems is a good thing. It’s a trait called self-efficacy. Thank you, Mom, for getting me that subscription to Scientific American when I was nine.

Here’s where I might agree with you. In my youth I joined Mensa and Intertel, to try to hang out with the smartest people I could find. I can report that it is a poor heuristic for socializing. I came to the conclusion that a gathering of people filtered specifically for performance on intelligence tests results in conflict, not harmony.

As I aged and became a teacher, I found it is better to treat everyone as potentially brilliant, in some possibly undiscovered way; or at least as possessing qualities that may unlock the brilliance of others. We’re all valuable if we seek to be, and intelligence tests are beside the point of living.